STUDY OF MEMORY DISTURBANCES IN PATIENT OF SCHIZOPHRENIA AND THEIR CARE TAKERS

Background: Schizophrenia is a disorder where there are major disturbances in thought, emotion and behavior, leading to a state of permanent deterioration. Memory is the process whereby what is experienced or learned is established as a record in the CNS. Memory belongs to the cognitive domains which show major impairment in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia does affect cognitive function. Most of the schizophrenic patients are not obviously intellectually impaired. Aims and Objectives: To study memory function in various domains in patients of schizophrenia and their care takers. To study the association of memory disturbance with the type of schizophrenia, duration of illness, duration of treatment. To find out any co-relation of memory impairment in care takers as per relation with the patient. To compare neurocognitive functions in patients of schizophrenia and their care takers. Materials and Methods: Present study comprised of two groups of 25 subjects each distributed as schizophrenic patients and their care takers. Patients of schizophrenia confirmed by DSM IV-TR criteria for schizophrenia and their care takers were selected randomly from the patients attending Psychiatry OPD of Sheth V.S. General Hospital attached to Smt. N.H.L. Municipal Medical College, Ahmedabad. Results: Male are more than females in patients with schizophrenia. The majority of patients are from 30-39 years age group. While in care taker group majority are from 50-59 years age group. Majority of the subjects from both the groups are from urban background. 76% of total subjects were Hindu. In both the groups majority of the subjects were married. Discussion: There is no difference in all subtests in both the groups. Impaired attention has frequently been observed in studies of unaffected siblings of patients. Conclusions: There is no significant difference in the memory status of the schizophrenia patients and their care takers except for recent memory and verbal memory. Memory disturbances in patients has not any relation with the type of schizophrenia, duration of illness and total duration of treatment. Irrespective of the biological relation with the patient, care takers also having memory disturbances.